


In the Rough

by Azzandra



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Past Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-11 20:56:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7907419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azzandra/pseuds/Azzandra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scenes from Rose Quartz's early life. Really early. Starting from the day when she was made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hello

The first thing Rose Quartz ever saw, and her first measure for beauty in the world, was the blue of the sky.

Being born was confusing, for all that it involved a sudden awakening to certainty and purpose. Too much certainty; too much purpose. But above her, shining from over the jagged cliffs, was this stretch of perfect, brilliant blue, this unexplainable absence of stone. She knew she was Rose Quartz, she knew she was born to serve Pink Diamond, she knew she was here in this world to fight and win.

But oh, what _was_ that blue thing?

"It's the sky," a petulant, nasal voice informed her, and Rose looked down.

She knew, without having to be informed this time, but just by looking at the gleaming green stone on the gem's chest, that before her stood a Peridot; a caretaker for the Kindergarten. She was much shorter than Rose herself, made to a different purpose.

"Oh, hello," Rose said.

The Peridot before her gave Rose a look up and down, and then tapped something into the silvery tablet in her hand. Rose was tall enough to see that Peridot seemed to be inputting some sort of assessment into the device in her hand. Her fingers were just as sleek and nimble as the rest of her, and glided easily across the tablet.

"Acceptable, I suppose," Peridot said. She tucked the device under her arm, and circled Rose. "Exemplary exit pattern, flawless cut, no obvious deficiencies, sufficiently pleasing aspect--" Peridot lifted one of Rose's arms, squinted at Rose's gem, plucked at her skirt. She did all this quickly, before Rose could even react.

"Thank you," Rose said, "I think."

Peridot took a step back and, with a cocky smile, input some more information into her tablet. 

"--of course, any flaws you display in the future will hardly be _my_ fault," Peridot preened.

Rose's brows lowered.

"Thanks," she deadpanned.

"You're welcome," Peridot replied primly. 

Then she gave an undignified squawk as a hand bore down on her and ruffled her hair.

"Don't mind the Peridots," came the cheerful boom of a new voice. "It's their job to haze the new recruits."

Rose looked up in surprise from Peridot, and she really did have to look up because the new Gem seemed just a bit taller than Rose herself. She was yellow and orange, with a mass of tousled golden hair. She was built along more solid lines than Peridot, with a slim waist but broad and solid shoulders, and thick arms. Set in her solar plexus was her gem, a yellow, rectangular cut. Rose knew this one with more immediacy: a Citrine. An elite Quartz warrior.

"It's a quality inspection!" Peridot huffed, swatting away Citrine's hand. "You'd know that if someone ever thought of giving _you_ one, you dunderhead!"

Citrine rolled her eyes, and plucked Peridot's tablet out of her hand with ease.

"Anyway," Citrine said, raising the tablet just high enough that Peridot couldn't reach it even by engaging in some very unbecoming hopping, "I'm here to take you to the only quality inspection that counts."

"Oh, um--" Rose's eyes darted to the tablet, still out of reach even as Peridot alternated her hopping with some rapid arm-flailing and indignant huffing.

Citrine broke into a wide grin.

"No! Don't worry, no more people poking at you from this point on," Citrine assured. "This'll actually be fun."

Citrine turned on her heel and carelessly tossed the tablet over her shoulder, just a bit too high for Peridot to catch it.

Rose's hands shot out instinctively, grasping the object out of the air easily. She blinked, caught off-guard by her own reflexes for a moment. Even Peridot was gaping, frozen in place with her arms still open in a flailing motion. 

Glancing back over her shoulder, Citrine flashed Rose only a satisfied little grin, before striding off.

It was that, more than anything, that jarred Rose back into action, and she bent into a half-bow, apologetically presenting the tablet to Peridot.

"Thank you for--ah, greeting me," Rose said hastily.

Peridot accepted the tablet, eyes downcast, lips pursed unhappily, but when it was finally in her hands, she gave a tight little nod to Rose, the only thanks she was willing to offer.

 

* * *

 

Citrine had a long-legged stride, and she walked with a swagger like she knew that anywhere she ever went, she belonged. Rose had to jog after her, and only just caught up to Citrine at the warp pad.

This was another piece of knowledge asserting itself in Rose's mind. Warp pad. Going somewhere. Some strange sensory memory that did not belong to Rose warned her that she was supposed to adjust her balance or her weight somehow, but seconds before she could figure out in what way, Citrine activated it, and Rose felt the smooth surface of the warp pad slip from under her feet moments too soon.

With a surprised yelp, Rose jerked in the air, accidentally spun herself around, and as the journey abruptly came to an end, was deposited in a heap onto the incoming warp pad, disoriented and with an aching backside.

Citrine gave a bark of a laugh, but before Rose could even pick herself up, Citrine had already clasped Rose's hand and pulled her to her feet.

"First time's always like that," Citrine reassured, then, after a moment's though added, "Second and third time, sometimes, too." Then after a beat, unprompted, "Any number of times, really, happens all the time to most people. Anyway! Here we are."

"Wait, where--?" Rose asked, as Citrine turned to a flight of stairs and began climbing it three stairs at a time.

"The Arena!" Citrine boomed just as Rose reached the top of the stairs, and stopped in her tracks, jaw hanging open.

The Arena was smooth stone, polished to a shine, great statues of the Diamonds looking down upon it even as group of Gems gathered in the stands. And stretching above and everywhere around the Arena, was the sky.

Rose stared, head craned back, unsure what to take in first. Soft fluff hung in the sky, a delicate white compared to the powder blue of the sky. If allowed, she could have stared at the strange features of this planet for days.

Citrine, however, had other plans. She clapped her hands together twice, and the Gems in the stands turned to look at her. Even the two Gems down in the arena proper stopped their sparring to cast curious looks at Citrine.

"Friends! Gems! Loyal subjects of Pink Diamond!" Citrine proclaimed with bombast, and at the last part, nearly all the Gems present crossed their arms over their chests, palms outwards and bent back to make the shape of a diamond. Citrine held the salute for only a moment, before continuing, "So I was just down at the Kindergarten, and guess who I've got!"

Citrine sidestepped neatly, putting Rose Quartz in full view of all the assembled Gems--and then, perhaps in case anyone missed it, Citrine dropped onto one knee and gestured with both arms to Rose, presenting her in full glory, and yelled, "Our very own, very first, Rrrrrrrooooose Quartz!"

A wave of surprise washed over the Arena, a hush of a few seconds, every Gem including Rose disconcerted by the sudden introduction.

Rose gave a jaunty little wave.

"Uh, hi," she said.

The Arena burst into frantic whispering and amazed shouts, and at least some amount of excitement, though Rose had no idea why her appearance would provoke it.

"First Rose Quartz baked on this hunk a' rock," Citrine explained, jabbing Rose playfully with her elbow. "Kind of a big deal for us."

Rose blinked, surprised, before turning back to the crowds.

"Well, thank you all for being so welcoming," she said, feeling a burst of affection for the assembled Gems. She waved at them again, less stiffly this time.

Most were Quartz warriors of some type. She saw Carnelians, Amethysts, Jaspers, even a Vermarine, but gems of other types as well; a cluster of Rubies, for example, were climbing all over each other to get a better look at Rose Quartz.

"Right, now we can move on to the real fun part," Citrine said, ushering Rose down through the stands, towards the arena grounds.

Gems gave Rose encouraging gestures and words as she passed them, making her feel both welcome and a bit flattered. She didn't think to ask Citrine what she meant until they were already at the bottom of the stairs, and the Gems who'd been fighting there just moments ago retreated to the stands.

"What's the fun part?" Rose asked, as Citrine nudged her towards the center of the Arena and then stepped back.

"Now you're gonna fight!" Citrine replied gleefully, throwing herself into the stands in a careless sprawl.

Rose laughed nervously, not sure if she heard Citrine correctly. "...What?"

"Fight!" Citrine shouted, and then pumped her fist in the air to punctuate the word, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The shout was taken up by all the Gems sitting near Citrine, and then by the whole Arena, the entire multicolored array of spectators chanting as one.

An Aventurine broke off from the stands, large and green and taking out a frightful double-bladed axe out of the gem on her shoulder. She grinned from ear to ear, nothing like Citrine's friendly expression, but sharp and glinting like her weapon.

"Alright, let's see what you've got, Rosy," the Aventurine hollered, swinging the axe over her head in a showy arc before dashing for Rose.

It was all so sudden, so unexpected for Rose, that all she managed to do, standing there without a weapon and with no idea this was coming, was to continue standing there, thinking in blank shock how this was all so sudden.

The axe glinted bright against the blue of the sky, the axe swung, came down--

\--and then the blade bounced off the surface of Rose's bubble with an almost comical clang, and completely reversed its trajectory, going right over Aventurine's head, and taking her backwards with it. Rose had only a glimpsed of Aventurine's flabbergasted expression before she fell over onto her back.

Rose touched the inside of the pink bubble around her, and understood it was the first manifestation of something unique to her: not the knowledge that had been poured into her as an expectant empty vessel, but something innate and living, flowing outwards from her.

In the stands, past Aventurine, Citrine's eyes grew wide in excitement.

Though Rose couldn't hear it, Citrine threw up her arms and yelled "Whoo!" And though Citrine wouldn't hear it, Rose threw up her arms as well and yelled "Whoo!"

It was then that Aventurine sprang up from the ground, huffing in frustration, and produced a second axe. She fell upon Rose's bubble with a vengeance, raining blows so quickly her arms were a blur.

Rose could feel the bubble straining against every blow, drawing out more and more from Rose to withstand the attack. Sitting there and waiting for Aventurine to break through would be stupid.

But Rose understood now, and from somewhere deep inside, from the same place that made the bubble appear, she knew she could draw the knowledge to win.

She popped the bubble and dodged to the side, Aventurine's axes cleaving through the air and embedding into the stone of the Arena with the strength of the swing.

Aventurine tugged on the handles once, but when she failed to pull out the axes so deeply embedded into the stone, she abandoned them instead. She pulled out two new axes instead.

"Come on, pull out a weapon already!" someone heckled from the stands. "Are you a Quartz or a Pearl? You're not here to look stand around and look pretty!"

Well, that was quite rude, Rose thought, but she couldn't exactly sort out whoever had said it yet. 

She dodged Aventurine again, a barrel roll turning into a swift cartwheel back onto her feet. Aventurine swung at Rose from the left, from the right, but managed to miss. So Aventurine shapeshifted herself an extra pair of arms, took out a couple more axes, and swung at Rose with all four, from both directions.

Rose dodged backwards, but she noticed belatedly that this brought her back against a pillar. Aventurine's smile turned wickedly pleased, knowing she had Rose cornered, and she swung her four arms again.

Rose picked the only direction available to her, and jumped, letting Aventurine's axes embed themselves into the pillars instead.

"Ha!" Rose couldn't help herself from making the triumphant little sound, as she stared down past her toes at Aventurine growling and trying to take her axes out.

Then she continued looking down at Aventurine, realizing that she was not exactly falling back down. She looked around, to the cheering Gems in the Arena, and then up, and then motioned herself backwards, bracing her feet against the pillar.

"I can fly?" Rose whispered to herself, feeling the grin stretching across her lips. "I can fly!"

She was so busy exulting, she almost forgot about Aventurine. She looked back down just in time to see the green Gem throw one of her axes.

"Oop! Flying away now!" Rose declared, an edge of panic finally cutting through her good mood.

She pushed off the pillar, but not with as much speed as she might have thought necessary. Rose cursed her slowness as Aventurine's axe cleaved a chunk off the pillar and sent it right into Rose.

Too slow to dodge, too new to the power to control it properly, Rose careened straight to the ground again, managing only to roll into the fall and not scrape her gem against the stone.

It was painful, the first truly bad pain she'd felt since emerging from the Kindergarten. On the edges of her conscience, she could see the way out of this like a door: disperse the pained physical manifestation and retreat to her gem, and all would be well. 

But seeing it also showed Rose the other way, the harder options. Hold together, continue, win.

Rose stopped her long roll against the Arena floor on her back, and opened her eyes to the sky.

Oh. It was still there. She was still here.

And then the sky was not there, but Aventurine was, standing over Rose, grinning, swinging, _another axe bearing down--!_  


'No, I'm not going away!' thought Rose, and from that place inside her, where she had her magic, where she had her instincts, on the slim edge where those two things were the same thing, from that place inside her came the shield. Hold together, continue, win. Living light bloomed on Rose's arm, and when the blow hit, it wrenched Rose's arm, but it did not break through the shield.

Aventurine axe almost bounced off again, but she was quicker on the uptake this time. When she swung again, it was to break the shield, a blow hard enough to be shattering. The shield held again. Aventurine gritted her teeth in a soundless snarl.

But Aventurine also caught Rose's eye over the shield, and something she saw in Rose in that moment gave Aventurine pause. Imperceptibly, in the length of a moment, a balance shifted.

Rose blocked one more blow before dodging out of the way and jumping back to her feet. They were Quartz warriors both, but Aventurine was taller, lankier, and when she straightened from a slump, it seemed to make her look even bigger.

From side to side, Aventurine swung her axes, but each blow glanced off Rose's shield. Aventurine became frantic, impatient, sloppy; Rose remained immovable, or moved only when she had an opening, and though she bore a shield and not a weapon, she swung it as fiercely as Aventurine, and knocked the axes out of her hands.

Aventurine growled, unwilling to yield. Rose thought she was rearing for another charge, but Aventurine bolted to the side, and threw an axe unexpectedly from Rose's flank.

Rose twisted around just in time to smack it out of the air with her shield, but Aventurine laughed, triumphant.

Rose didn't understand at first, but Aventurine darted in a wide arc around Rose, flinging axes. Rose turned around and around, barely with enough time to ward off each flying axe.

Aventurine laughed again, and upped her speed until she was a ball of motion, producing a rain of axes.

Rose dodged and blocked, just barely keeping pace. She could bring up a bubble around her again, but eventually Aventurine would pop it. She could continue dodging, but eventually she'd grow tired.

She tried getting closer to Aventurine, but Aventurine was keeping away, wise to Rose's intentions and not willing to allow her to be on the offensive for even a moment.

Rose wracked her brain for a strategy, a solution, but before she could come up with anything, a suggestion came from the stands instead.

"Throw the shield!" Citrine yelled.

' _What?_ ' mouthed the Gems sitting next to Citrine, looking at her like she was off her head.

"I'll take it," Rose muttered, and turned a dodge into a flinging motion as she swung herself out of an axe's way.

The shield flew right in Aventurine's path, and right under her feet. With a shriek, she unintentionally skated the shield right into a pillar, face-first. The shield popped, and Aventurine's head wedged right into the hole she'd previously made in the pillar with her axes.

As Aventurine pulled her head out, growling, a second shield came, bonking her right in the back of her head, and she was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a green gem to clatter to the ground.

Rose remained frozen in place, another shield on her arm, prepared for another volley, but the Arena burst into cheers and applause, and Aventurine's gem remained still and unstirring on the ground.

"You actually threw the shield!" Citrine shouted, running right up to Rose and picking her up in a hug.

"You told me to!" Rose said, feeling laughter bubble up in her, tinged with a bit of hysteria.

"My ideas are terrible!" Citrine shouted happily as she applied the hug with some extra crushing on the side.

Rose laughed.


	2. Meet in the Pit

"This is home," Citrine explained, the first time she took Rose to the palatial residence of the Quartz warriors.

Intimidating, scowling statues stood sentinel along its circular walls, and banners at the entrance fluttered with Pink Diamond's symbol. There were spikes along its parapets, and the moat surrounding the building burned with blue fires.

It was called the Chalcedony Coliseum.

"But I call it the Pit," Citrine said.

"Why do you call it the Pit?" Rose asked.

"'Cause it's shorter."

"Oh."

 

* * *

 

The Coliseum was built in concentric circles, and all its walls were curved and iridescent on the inside. It had atria and forges and training rooms, and in the middle, inside the walls, it had its nine arenas, the topmost level with the ground, and the next eight on increasingly lower levels.

Citrine entertained Rose with the features of all the arenas, the complex magical mechanisms which offered obstacles and training dummies for the warriors to train, and then, after a long walk around its spiraling halls, Citrine presented Rose with her living quarters.

"Kinda bare, for now," Citrine conceded, upon presenting the empty room.

"No, it's fine. It's full of... possibility," Rose said, and walked to the arched window, looking out into the view of orange-tinged mountains in the sunset. "I like it," she said quietly.

"You're gonna want to see Snowflake," Citrine said, and gestured for Rose to follow.

 

* * *

 

In the lower levels of the Coliseum, in the circle around its ninth arena, the lighting was mostly provided by lava flowing through narrow channels in the ground, covered by transparent protective magic. The warm red and orange glow against the jagged walls still managed to be eerie, somehow.

"Snoooowflake," Citrine sing-songed as she led Rose down a narrow hall, "give us a chirrup, don't leave us groping around for you now."

"Hey, groping is an eviction offense," a husky voice responded.

Citrine gave a satisfied smirk, and turned on her heel.

Behind them, right back the way they came, was a Snowflake Obsidian. Rose had the knowledge about them floating in her head. Obsidians; made-to-order servants, more resilient than Pearls and capable of harder labor.

There was, indeed, something solid about Snowflake Obsidian. She was a head shorter than either Rose and Citrine, more stout, with a short mess of gray hair and a smattering of white spots blooming like a snowflake across her otherwise jet-black surface. She favored heavy leathery material in her personal appearance, and a dark visor obscuring the upper part of her face, but her gem was on display on her belly, shiny and smooth, with a perfectly spherical surface, not cut like regular Gems'.

Snowflake adjusted her visor and made a jaunty little greeting gesture in Rose's direction.

"'Sup," she said.

"Hello," Rose responded.

"There she is," Citrine said, and greeted Snowflake with a firm smack over the shoulder, much as she would a fellow Quartz. Snowflake seemed accustomed to this treatment.

Snowflake looked Rose up and down.

"Aww, Boss. You brought me something shiny? You shouldn't have," she drawled.

"Hey, no," Citrine very seriously poked Snowflake's shoulder. "I haven't even properly broken this one in yet. Mitts off."

"Really?" Snowflake asked, and tipped her visor down just enough so she could get a good look at Rose. 

Rose glimpsed only a pair of milky-white pupils before Snowflake pushed her visor back in place.

"So what's your damage then?" Snowflake asked.

"She has nothing for her room," Citrine said.

"Oh, yeaaah, was just getting around to it," Snowflake said. "A console, couple of lanterns, a weapons rack, we'll get that room looking like home sweet Homeworld in no time."

"Thank you," Rose said, with sincerity.

Snowflake laughed.

"Like her already," Snowflake said approvingly. "I'm throwing in something extra for free."

Snowflake clicked her tongue twice, like a sort of verbal wink, and turned around, disappearing down the hall.

 

* * *

 

Surprisingly, by the time Rose and Citrine returned to the room, everything was already in place. A console had been provided, true, and crystals floating around the room lit it with a steady pink glow. Rose couldn't see a weapons rack until she accidentally brushed a hand against the console and it sprouted out of the ground.

Then there were the tapestries. Rose did not quite understand what they represented, but there were two of them, showing beautiful planet landscapes that could not be of anywhere on Earth. One was a city with gleaming spires, the other was a mountain with a temple Rose didn't recognize. When Rose approached the tapestries, there was a strange depth to their images, as if she could step through them and into the stylized places they showed.

By the window, Snowflake had placed a sofa, perfectly angled halfway towards the room, but with a view out the window. It had pink cushions. 

Citrine promptly sprawled herself on Rose's sofa.

"There, see? Knew Snowflake would set you up," Citrine said, propping her head on one of the sofa's handrests and crossing her feet over the other.

"I wonder how she knew I'd like the color?" Rose wondered. 

Citrine rose on her elbows and looked at Rose as if trying to discern if she was joking. Then she gave up and let herself drop down again.

"Anyway," Citrine said, "rule is as long as the walls stay intact, you can do whatever you want in here. Floor and ceiling count as walls, by the way. This is the well-established Tiger's-Eye/Carnelian precedent and not up for further discussion."

"I think I'll be very comfortable here, thank you, Citrine," Rose replied. "I should go thank Snowflake for this lovely room."

"Don't bug her," Citrine warned. "She's responsible for the whole Coliseum. Busy, busy."

"O-oh. Okay, then." Rose blinked, and laced her fingers together, looking at Citrine.

Citrine, though her eyes were closed, sensed Rose's gaze.

"Spit it out, what's on your mind?" Citrine asked.

"It's just, well, you took me all over the Coliseum today," Rose said. "And I met a lot of Quartz soldiers."

"Most of the grunts," Citrine agreed.

"But... no other Rose Quartzes," Rose said. "Or Citrines."

Citrine was quiet for a long time, and it almost seemed like she had no intention of replying. Her eyes were closed, but Rose did not think Citrine was so odd that she engaged in sleeping, but then again, she _was_ in Rose's room and showed no intention of leaving yet.

"More Rose Quartzes should come out of the Kindergarten soon. But Citrines are rare these days," Citrine said eventually. 

"Why?" Rose asked. Her finger idly traced the diamond-shaped cutout around the pink gem on her belly.

"We're a bit rough and tumble," Citrine laughed. "And, we haven't found a planet other than Homeworld where we grow well. So our numbers are pretty thin right now."

"So Citrines can only grow on Homeworld?" Rose asked.

"Nnnnnnno," Citrine said slowly. She sat up on the sofa, making enough room for Rose to sit down next to her. "Used to, but Homeworld doesn't really just _grow_ Gems anymore. S'why we're here. Good soil, grows some mighty fine Quartz." Citrine jabbed a finger at Rose for emphasis. "Once we have a few dozen mature Kindergartens, though, who know, maybe along with Rose Quartzes we'll be churning out some new Citrines too!"

Citrine smiled, but it didn't seem to Rose like Citrine's usual smiles. Something about it didn't quite reach Citrine's eyes.

Rose took Citrine's hand.

"I hope so," Rose said softly, but with feeling.

This made something hitch in Citrine's manner, made her momentarily at a loss. Perhaps Rose had seen something she should not, perhaps Citrine had revealed a longing she hadn't meant to.

"Thanks," Citrine muttered, then seemed to gather herself again, and playfully punched Rose's shoulder. "But hey, don't get soppy on me!"

Rose chuckled, and rubbed her shoulder.


	3. Birds on the Brain

A bird came to Rose's window.

The first time Rose saw it, she was sitting at the console, and the movement drew her eye across the room. Rose froze in place, too afraid to move and startle the bird.

It hopped on the windowsill, its feathers so glossy and black they were iridescent. To Rose, it was a fascinating sight. Not a Gem, yet alive. Made of organic matter, moving with purpose and intent. A living organic being. How unimaginable, to think that the mineral matter of this planet was inert unless acted upon by Gems, yet its organic matter had coalesced into actual life somehow. How delightfully backwards.

Rose hunched herself behind the console, making no sudden movement to startle the creature, and then, very carefully, inched herself sideways out of her chair to where she could get a better view of the bird.

Its black, beady eyes turned to Rose just then, and Rose froze in place. Rose wasn't sure what was happening, but something about the glassy stare of the creature felt like some profound judgment, and Rose held firm under it.

Then the bird let out a cry and flew off.

Rose waited for a long time, but the bird did not return.

 

* * *

 

Rose pondered the bird all throughout the next day. Perhaps it would be back, and Rose would be able to approach it. She considered her strategy as she took a walk through the Coliseum.

The other Quartz warriors were always pleased to see her, and usually expressed this by inviting Rose to spar with them.

Rose took up a few of them--sparring was interesting, and she always seemed to learn something from it--but after a while she found herself asking if they wouldn't want to do something different.

"Like what?" an Amethyst had asked in response, as she and a Carnelian exchanged confused glances.

"This planet is very interesting," Rose said. "It seems like there's so much to learn about it, so much beauty everywhere."

"Oooh, well yeah, I guess," Amethyst agreed, tilting her head curiously and squinting at Rose. "Oh wow, I forget you're just sprung outta the ground, geez. Everything really is new to you, huh?"

"I suppose so," Rose said. "Isn't that exciting?"

"That's one word for it," Amethyst snickered.

"No, come on, this is adorable," Carnelian chided in a stage whisper. "She likes this dingy little dustball."

"Doesn't... everyone?" Rose asked, unsure what she was missing. "This colony is Pink Diamond's pride and joy, isn't it?"

"No, yeah, it's great!" Amethyst assured, her voice pitching a bit high. "It's just, still a work in progress, y'know? Once it's built, it'll _really_ be something. Better than _anything_ the other Diamonds've got."

Rose blinked.

"But. The planet is... It's already great," Rose insisted. Then, with a thread of doubt, asked, "Isn't it?"

"Yeah, sure," Amethyst agreed insincerely.

"Oh gosh, how are you this cute," Carnelian whispered.

Rose didn't ask them anything about birds.

 

* * *

 

Citrine was overseeing training that day, and between sparring bouts, Rose managed to find her in the stands, at the fifth arena.

"Citrine, how much do you know about this planet?" Rose asked.

"Too wet, too dusty, could use more vicious monsters to punch," Citrine replied without taking her eyes off the arena, where a Vermarine was making a good run through the swinging ceiling axes.

"I think those things fall more into the category of personal opinion," Rose said. 

"I'll give you the first two, but I don't see the monster situation improving anytime in the future," Citrine said. After a long pause, she asked, "What's this about?"

"I saw a bird!" Rose blurted out.

"Yeah, the vermin are everywhere," Citrine scowled. "I don't even understand why this planet needs so many birds. What is it that they do, other than swoop down and try to steal your gem? What's their purpose, exactly? What reason could there possibly be for a planet to have this many birds? No way they're actually useful for anything. If they all decided to work together, we'd be in trouble."

"I, um... I was actually only thinking of one bird in particular," Rose said. "I'd like to see it again. Do... you know what birds like?"

"Hey, no," Citrine made a warding gesture. "I don't get involved with that stuff. Snowflake's the quartermaster. You need anything, she's the one you go to."

Rose perked up at this information.

"Thank you, Citrine, that's actually very useful."

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't anger the damn things."

Citrine waved Rose away, and focused her attention back to Vermarine, who was trying to step only on the lit-up squares on the training track. She accidentally toed an unlit square, and the ground turned to lava. The Quartzes in the stands whooped and laughed.

 

* * *

 

Snowflake stared at Rose.

"You want me to get you a bird?" Snowflake asked very slowly. "Okay, points for originality, Quartz. By far the weirdest thing anyone's asked me for so far."

"No, no," Rose said. "I want to attract the bird myself."

"Not making this any less weird, shiny."

Rose sighed, her hands dropping. She was not sure how to explain. She did not fully understand it herself. This was an odd thing to ask of anyone, and Snowflake had to have other things on her mind.

"I'm sorry to bother you, I know you're busy," Rose said and turned around.

Snowflake's hand shot out, not quite grabbing Rose, but stopping her anyway.

"Whoa, whoa, there, didn't say I wasn't going to do it," Snowflake said quickly. She took a moment to adjust her visor. "You're not going to do anything... strange to the bird, are you?"

"No, of course not!" Rose said. "I'd just like to see it closer."

"Fine, yeah, we can do that," Snowflake said. "Never one to turn down a challenge, us Obsidians."

"Same with Quartzes," Rose laughed.

"Yeah, I know. I'm the one who has to reset all the traps on the training course," Snowflake said.

 

* * *

 

Snowflake did not say how she planned to help Rose, but she did promise to swing by Rose's room once she had something. Since she wasn't that specific, Rose had a bit of a startle when she returned to her room around sunrise, and found Snowflake there, surrounded by bubbles.

"So," Snowflake said, as five different gray-tinged bubbles bobbed around her, "I've got some seeds, a few berries, some bugs, these weird nuts I found in a tree--"

"Snowflake! What's all this?" Rose asked.

"Bait," Snowflake said. "For the bird. See, the organic lifeforms of this planet have to consume other matter in order to fuel themselves and--erk!"

Snowflake was cut off as Rose swept her in a bearhug, and swung her around. Snowflake's bubbles bobbed and scattered at the motion.

"Hey, alright, too much touching, too much touching!" Snowflake said, tapping Rose's side. "Put me down."

"Oh! Right, sorry."

Rose deposited Snowflake on the ground, and the Obsidian fussily straightened herself out before wagging a finger at Rose.

"That was your touching quota for the year," Snowflake said sternly. "Now let's set this up, I think some of the bugs are starting to eat each other."

To 'set up', Snowflake took out of her gem a length of wire, speckled white and black. The bubbles were popped, and the bait was sorted on the windowsill, and then Snowflake took the wire and imbued it with a bit more of her magic. With movements so quick Rose could barely keep up, Snowflake twined the wire between the outside corners of the windowsill, then the inside corners, and when she pulled on it just so, through a trick of the light, the wire seemed to disappear.

Snowflake unspooled the other end of the wire as she walked backwards, and stopped only when she was behind the couch.

"Now we wait," Snowflake said, with a cocksure grin.

 

* * *

 

Snowflake's grin faded to a blank expression of boredom about three hours into waiting. The bird made no appearance, and it seemed to Rose like, rather embarrassingly, the bird's brief stop on her windowsill the other day had been a one time thing.

Rose had settled herself down next to Snowflake at some point.

In the steady daylight, Snowflake looked less intimidating. The marbled black-and-white of her appearance was highlighted with strips of green. She made interesting knots out of wire, again and again, shaped like different things. A flower. A butterfly. A perfect diamond. An infinite series of loops whose magical geometry made Rose's eyes hurt. Snowflake was skilled with her hands.

"I'm sorry I'm keeping you from your work," Rose felt the need to say at some point.

"My work?" Snowflake asked, her attention drawing slowly away from her wirework, back to Rose.

"Citrine did say you were busy."

"Citrine? Pfft." Snowflake's shoulders shook in mirth. "Citrine just says that so the grunts won't bug me with stupid requests."

"Oh." Rose was taken aback. "Um." She looked out to the windowsill, where still no bird was making its appearance. "But you work for Citrine, don't you?"

"I work for the Coliseum," Snowflake said flatly.

"I don't understand. You're not Citrine's...? But you called her 'Boss'."

"Heck yeah, I called her boss, because she's in charge of this circus and all the knuckleheads in it," Snowflake said. "Wouldn't want her job for all the accolades in Pink Diamond's court."

"A...hah..." Rose mouthed, even though it was clear she didn't understand.

Snowflake sighed, and began spooling back the excess length on her wire.

"Look, it's like... I used to belong to this Carnelian, right? And she got herself broken one day."

"Oh, no," Rose's hand pressed against her lips, her eyes widening.

"It was an accident." Snowflake shrugged. "She was training, got knocked back into her gem, and then her gem bounced off the platform and got crushed in the mechanism. Freak happenstance, could have happened to anyone. But it _happened_ to _her_."

"So you were allowed to stay here after that?" Rose asked.

"Well, 'allowed' is a strong word. Technically I was supposed to be sent back to Homeworld, to be awarded to some other upstanding Gem for their excellent service." There was a note of sarcasm in Snowflake's voice, which she smoothed over quickly. "But Citrine... Let's say she's very bad at filing paperwork when she wants to be." Snowflake gave a smirk. "So I've been bumming it around here ever since. Tuning the Coliseum. Cleaning the messes. And at this point, if Homeworld _did_ try to take me out of here? The whole place would fall apart without me." Snowflake opened her palms and shrugged.

There was a brief pause, Rose's lips pursing together in thought, like she was weighing something in her mind, and whatever her considerations, the question that she put forth eventually was,

"But are you happy here?"

"I make my own happiness," Snowflake replied. "Can't leave that up to anyone else, now can I? Hardly anyone's as competent as I am."

Rose began to smile, but movement from the corner of her eye made her turn her head away from Snowflake.

The bird had returned. It hopped on the windowsill, tilting its head back and forth as it inspected the feast before it, and began picking at the seeds first.

Rose stilled in place, enraptured by the creature and unwilling to scare it off again.

"Gotcha," Snowflake hissed, and pulled her wire.

The wire went taut, and closed around the bird's legs before the creature knew what was happening.

Rose was frozen in shock for a moment, and then the bird became a flurry of flapping wings and chilling screeches. The food laid out for it was scattered, out the window and across the floor, and black and gray feathers were snowing out of the bird as it struggled.

"Stop! Struggling!" Snowflake hissed.

Snowflake tugged her wire, pulling the bird inside, and Rose jumped to her feet, impelled to act somehow in the face of the spectacle.

"Snowflake, let it go!" Rose yelled.

"What? We just caught it!" 

"Let it go! Snowflake, let it go!" Rose repeated, feeling a bolt of panic as well. The bird was only struggling harder, hitting the window frame and possibly hurting itself.

Snowflake made a frustrated sound, but with a twist of the wire around her fingers, she broke it off, and the the bird, now freed, went barreling out the window.

"We had it!" Snowflake said. "Why did you want to let it go?"

"It was scared," Rose said.

Snowflake scoffed.

"It was a bird! Everything scares them! It would've been fine as soon as we reeled her in," she said.

"It wasn't worth it," Rose said, voice going soft.

Snowflake looked like she was wavering between telling Rose off and agreeing.

"I just," Rose paused for a second, not sure how to continue, "didn't intend this. I didn't mean for it to get hurt, I just wanted a look. It wasn't right." Her voice softened even further, "It wasn't necessary, either."

Snowflake stiffly turned away from Rose, and began spooling her wire.

"You're a weird one, Quartz," Snowflake said after a while.

"Sorry."

"Nah, don't apologize," Snowflake said, and turned back to Rose with a rueful smile. "Weird is interesting. I wanna see how it plays out for you."

"Thank you, then?"

"No, don't thank me either. I still called you _weird_."

Rose smothered a laugh. 

 

* * *

 

It was months before Rose thought about birds again. She was leaving one of the lower arenas, when Snowflake broke off from the shadows and sauntered over to her.

"Hey, there, Quartz. Want to see something?" Snowflake asked.

"I like seeing things," Rose said.

Snowflake beckoned her into some side tunnel Rose had never noticed before, and whose ceiling was low enough that Rose had to hunch over to follow Snowflake.

They emerged into a room out the side of the Coliseum that was facing the mountains, but the exterior wall had been removed and replaced with widely-spaced but elaborate grates. Metal bars criss-crossed the room at odd angles and fanciful shapes, as if some indecisive architect had not fully understood their purpose.

The smell was also decidedly organic, and that was the first thing Rose noticed before seeing the birds perched on the bars.

Snowflake handed Rose a small sack, and inside the sack was an assortment of seeds.

A dozen beady black eyes turned on Rose at the motion.

"Don't flinch," Snowflake instructed, and threw a handful of seeds on the ground.

There was the sound of fluttering wings like thunder, and all the birds swarmed around Snowflake. They pecked at the seeds with enthusiasm, and Rose gasped and threw a hand of seeds as well.

They flocked around Rose's feet, pecking at the seeds and jostling each other for the food.

"Snowflake, this is amazing," Rose said. "This is better than I even hoped for! Thank you!"

Snowflake shrugged without looking at Rose, as if embarrassed.

"Yeah, well, if I weren't here," Snowflake said, "you Quartzes wouldn't be able to find your own gems with a map and two hands."

Rose leaned down and kissed Snowflake on the cheek.

"You're a special one, Snowflake."

Snowflake shrugged again, and turned her face away so she could spend the next few minutes blushing profusely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Citrine's feelings about birds almost 90% motivated by that time she got into a fistfight with an emu and lost.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted this and some additional snippets [on tumblr](http://azzandra.tumblr.com/post/149520751366/in-the-rough#notes), but I'm going to post this and make it a proper fic. Not with like, a plot or anything, just a series of little stories from Rose's life, which I fully expect might be jossed at some point or another.


End file.
